Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is an ultrasound imaging technique that provides images of the heart for diagnostic and/or monitoring purposes. One particularly beneficial use of TEE is for obtaining images of the transgastric short axis view (TGSAV) of the left ventricle (LV). This is particularly useful for managing the cardiac function of patients in several hospital settings including the Intensive Care Unit and the Post Operative Setting. Small TEE probes that can be used over an extended period of time are particularly useful in this difficult patient population, as described in application Ser. No. 10/996,816, which us incorporated herein by reference as if set forth in its entirety.
Manufactures of conventional TEE ultrasound transducers typically strive to acoustically isolate the electrical connections to the piezo-electric components from the piezo materials and the associated backing and matching layers (also known as the acoustic stack). This isolation is desirable due to the deleterious effect that the materials typically employed have on the tuning of the acoustic stack. Some conventional approaches for making the electrical connection while maintaining acoustic isolation include special edge bonding, wire bonding, special ceramic fingers, and other high cost, high precision methods. Other approaches include using very fine wire attachments that go through the backing layers, aligned so that they are effectively in between the elements, where they do not affect the acoustic stack. Unfortunately, all these approaches for making the electrical connection are relatively difficult and/or expensive.